Blog Archives
Cry out! “The Lord is With You!” A sermon on Gabriel and Mary from Luke 1:6-28
Cry Out:
For He has answered!
“The Lord Is With You!”
Luke 1:26-38
† Jesus! Son! Savior †
May the grace and peace of God which passes all understanding enable you to ponder the depth of His love. For you and your world. Amen!
- Hail Mary… full of grace, the Lord is with thee..
As someone who grew up Roman Catholic, hearing the gospel this morning seemed, well, a little off.
I mean, I know it is perfectly accurate when it says,
“Greetings, favored woman! The Lord is with you!”
but I will always hear this passage in the way I memorized it as a kid,
Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with Thee….
It means the same thing – and we have to understand what it means, and more importantly, why it means that….
It is not for us a prayer to her, but as with so many in scripture, an opportunity to contemplate the work of God in her life, that we might comprehend His work in ours.
The reason for this is clear, though we don’t carry Jesus physically for 9 months, we are still united to Him, because “we are favored by God”, or to use the old words, “we are full of grace!”
- Confused and disturbed – at a message from God?
Before finding out she was about to become pregnant, Mary reacted to the presence of the angel, and his opening line about being favored—filled with grace.
It isn’t a bunch of “praise the Lord!” and “Alleluias.” She was in shock. The older translations say she was “greatly troubled,” but the modern translation does a good job—she was “confused and disturbed and she tried to think what the angel could mean!”
If she was confused and disturbed by an angelic being telling her she had been found in favor with God, that she would be blessed beyond belief, how much more would she be confused by the idea of carrying Jesus for nine months and giving birth to the One who would die to save mankind?
But we have the same confusion when it comes to God visiting us. We have the same reaction when God is calling us to something – especially if it is difficult and may leave us open to ridicule, or lead to uncomfortable conversations.
Who me God? How can this be? I have never done anything like this before!
Or maybe we answer like Moses, I am to shy, I can’t speak, I don’t have the charisma, I am not the right age, I don’t want to go live in the desert, I don’t….
It’s not that we don’t believe in God, but we struggle to depend on Him when what He has planned for us is beyond our imagination, beyond our comfort zone.
It would so easy to say “no”, it would be so easy to say, “that’s impossible, it would be so easy to dismiss the call of God on our lives.
Or so we think….
- Our Response to the Word of God not failing
The angel gave her an answer, this is how it will be, and here is a great thing you can do to confirm this, go check with your cousin Elisabeth, she’s got some interesting news… even though she’s over 75-nearly 80- she’s pregnant! You remember her – the one everyone gossiped about because she was considered cursed and barren…
Now I would suggest – even hope that none of our 70 plus year olds would have to get pregnant for God to make His point about your life being one that is special, but if it has to happen….
Seriously, we have a promise that proves it, the presence of the Holy Spirit given to us as we were born again with Him in baptism. The Holy Spirit who Jesus promised will “teach you everything and will remind you of everything I have told you.” John 14:26 (NLT2)
It is the same thing that Paul taught about when he wrote,
“18 I ask that your minds may be opened to see his light, so that you will know what is the hope to which he has called you, how rich are the wonderful blessings he promises his people, 19 and how very great is his power at work in us who believe. This power working in us is the same as the mighty strength 20 which he used when he raised Christ from death and seated him at his right side in the heavenly world.” Ephesians 1:18-20 (TEV)
That Holy Spirit, who came upon Mary and resulted in her pregnancy and our salvation, is at work in us- blessing us, filling us with His grace – as much as He filled Mary with grace, and because of the same death and resurrection that makes this all possible.
So as we transition from Advent to Christmas in this service, as we celebrate God coming into the world to dwell with us…
You may find this confusing and overwhelming – as much as Mary did, when the Angel spoke those words,
But Greetings my friend, the grace of God is poured out on you, for the Lord is with you!
Now bring Him into the world – and let God’s word determine your life, for you live in Jesus… AMEN!
That Manger Has A Specific Message for You.
Devotional Thought fo the Day:
35 The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and God’s power will rest upon you. For this reason the holy child will be called the Son of God. 36Remember your relative Elizabeth. It is said that she cannot have children, but she herself is now six months pregnant, even though she is very old. 37For there is nothing that God cannot do.”
38 “I am the Lord’s servant,” said Mary; “may it happen to me as you have said.” And the angel left her. Luke 1:35-38 TEV
18 “Here’s what I want you to do: Buy your gold from me, gold that’s been through the refiner’s fire. Then you’ll be rich. Buy your clothes from me, clothes designed in Heaven. You’ve gone around half-naked long enough. And buy medicine for your eyes from me so you can see, really see. 19 “The people I love, I call to account—prod and correct and guide so that they’ll live at their best. Up on your feet, then! About face! Run after God! 20 “Look at me. I stand at the door. I knock. If you hear me call and open the door, I’ll come right in and sit down to supper with you.
Revelation 3:18-20 (MSG)
The second (step to learning mental prayer (1) ) means to place yourself in his sacred presence is, to reflect that God is not only in the place where you are, but that He is, after a most particular manner, in your heart, nay, in the very centre of your soul, which He enlivens and animates by his divine presence, being there as the heart of your heart, and the spirit of your spirit; for as the soul, being diffused through the whole body, is present. (2)
Wednesday nights, we’ve been looking at the incarnation for something unique, as we find in the night’s darkness that is shattered by the glory of God, the reason we love Him with everything we are. As we learn why our heart, our soul, our strength and our mind cry out for his love.
Francis de Sales wrote something quite similar, which appeared in my morning devotional readings. Teaching a lady about prayer, he commented as you see above. An intimacy we each have, because of the incarnation. Just as Mary’s womb bore Jesus, just as He became incarnate there, so too does he become incarnate in the very center our soul. He comes into us, makes Himself home, so incredibly home that He intertwines himself into who we are.
Think of this, as through Mary’s umbilical cord shared her and his blood, so too our life and his life circulate within us because He is there.
That is how He “enlivens (the old quicken in the Creeds) and animates us by His presence. He clothes us, He heals, He corrects and comforts.
All because he is there, in your heart, in the depth of your soul.
He’s there, knocking at the door to you and me…for we are the people he loves. Read that second quote again, and hear His knock….and His desire to be incarnate, to be entwined in your heart and soul, to be your life blood.
May you answer, as Mary did – “may it happen to me as you have said…”
AMEN
(1) The first step is simply to that God is everywhere, and in everything.
(2) Francis de Sales, Saint. An Introduction to the Devout Life. Dublin: M. H. Gill and Son, 1885. Print.
